Capcom Explains Why Leon Isn’t In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

There’s one thing many Resident Evil fans have been wondering about in terms of the soon-to-launch Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, and that’s the extremely absurd lack of Leon S. Kennedy. So, in a game that already boasts 8 fan-favorite characters ranging from Chris to Wesker, why has Capcom opted to decline Leon entry to the upcoming 3DS exclusive’s all-star cast?

The series producer, Masachika Kawata, has finally given Leon fans the explanation they’ve been demanding since Mercs 3D’s reveal, though it may not be the answer they were hoping for. “He’s all tied up for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City,” states Kawata, which is surely going to cause an uproar among Leon fans who are already upset at the treatment he’s getting in Slant Six’s upcoming squad-based shooter.

But wait! Could Capcom be saving Leon for post-launch DLC? As a response to that, and to the very notion of DLC, Kawata states: “At the moment no, we haven’t got any plan,” Kawata states about DLC support. He then goes on to at least drop some seeds of hope in fans with the following statement: “If the users want that we will endeavour to make it happen. We’re always monitoring the comments and feedback from users.”

What do you think about this? How do you feel about Leon missing out on the franchise’s 3DS debut?

Leon as a DLC-Character? Hell yeah, that would be awesome. I mean, why should we just pay 50 dollars, or whatever it will cost, when we could pay a lot more for stuff that could be already included in the game? Apparently gamers have too much money to waste.

Smiley

No DLC although I wouldn’t be surprised if Capcom is intentionally holding off to charge people extra for locked characters like they did in marvel vs. capcom 3. This is a full on mercs game though. The bare minimum at best should at least be all the RE4/RE5 merc characters.

The excuse is stupid since Chris, Jill and HUNK are also in another game and in mercs 3D. This also implies that characters like Jill or Claire might not be in Operation: Raccoon City if that’s why Leon is out yet those two are in.

This game has RE4 stages and enemies. Krauser and HUNK. But no Leon or Ada? Hell not even Sheva, Josh or Excella make the cut.

I was interested in this game when it was announced. But all I’m seeing is no new areas or enemies (everything looks like it’ll be pulled from RE4 and RE5 in updated port fashion). And only one new character makes it in yet five are taken out……

I have decided not to buy this game. It’s a lackluster title and looks more incomplete than Marvel vs. Capcom 3. And if they pull a super street fighter on us and develop a re-release with more content….maybe I’ll check it out then. Otherwise it’s a no-buy.

As an aside Capcom also missed the mark on where mercs stemmed from. Back when it came out in RE3 with actual mercenaries characters and the game play was different. Now they’ve all but forgotten how its done.

James xXx

Wow bummer, Smiley’s got a point, no Ada or the others mentioned in the past merc mini games, hmmm.. just like MVC 3 I smell bad karma from this, I guess the only reason the game seems purchasible because of the Revelations demo but we don’t know how lengthy that would be. Capcom really did lost there mark for this lackluster title thats for damn sure. So lets just hope Operation RC doesn’t fall out of the place like this one cause unlike this, it looks more promising.

Smiley

Actually the demo will be short as confirmed recently. You can already see footage on youtube of it.

Woekerini

I think Capcom has bitten off more than they can chew. They have The Mercenaries 3D, Operation Raccoon City, Revelations and Revival Selection to work on, which is why I think they want to release The Mercenaries now and add more content when the dust settles.

Since I’m a fan of the series and especially The Mercenaries in particular, I will buy the game as I’m already psyched about it, though I share the same sort of disappointment (sounds stronger than it is, because the game actually looks great as of now).

With this ‘disappointment’ I mean, the characters were selected by popularity. If you compare the fanbases of Rebecca, Hunk, Barry or Krauser to Leon’s, you’ll definitely see Leon’s bulldozing over them. On top of that, he’s one of the main characters, having the leading role in RE2, RE4 and the Darkside Chronicles. I’m kind of playing the devil’s advocate, since I’m actually a Krauser fan, but if they don’t want to include Leon in The Mercenaries just because he’s already in Operation Raccoon City, then they’re literally killing him.

My first idea of the game was the game modes from RE4 and RE5 put together with some new controll tweeks. Then we were promised characters that are completely new to The Mercenaries and we got Claire. For the record, I love Claire, she’s the first RE character I ever played as, but what happened to like Billy, Carlos, Nicholai and such? Since the game isn’t story based, you can even bring back characters from the dead like the late S.T.A.R.S. members without needing a good reason to incorporate them. You only need a good reason not to incorporate them.

The way I see it now, is that Capcom would love to send us some more characters over time by DLC after the load of work for the other major titles starts to diminish.

Red-Dragon-Cro

If he is gona bi in a DLC thats fine to me^^
Well but then there should be Ada aswell and other characters like Billy,Carlos,Sheva,Josh,… and some of the unplayable characters from the series like S.T.A.R.S. members,Luis,…

Woekerini

I think if they release characters, they will release them in pairs. So if they add Leon, I think Ada will tag along.

Right now we have all been demanding charachters, which is logical, since The Mercenaries is especially made for the fans, but it also sounds a little ungrateful.

We should first enjoy the game as it is now and request afterwards. Mr. Kawata uses the word ‘user’, with which (I think) he indicates that requests should come from people who have actually played the game.

Rope

It was all planned.
“He’s all tied up for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City”.
“At the moment no, we haven’t got any plan [for DLC]. If the users want that we will endeavour to make it happen”
Do they think we’re stupid?
Of course Capcom knows that Leon is one of the biggest characters in the Resident Evil roster, and that’s exactly why he’s left out.
Cause if they were to put all the main character in the game, and just release DLC with some secondary characters not everybody really cares about, who would buy the DLC? Not many.
No, instead they’re putting characters like Barry and Rebecca, which are very welcome in my book but they’re clearly not as important as a Leon, and leaving out some of the main characters so that the future DLC will be necessary to have what should have already been in the game.
Mark my words, these are the 4 characters that will be released with the first DLC: Leon, Ada, Sheva and Josh.
And people who go like “oh man, I’d love if they would give us Leon through DLC!!” just make me laugh, cause they don’t understand that’s exactly how Capcom wants us to act, so they can later come to us with DLC and make it look like they’re really paying attention to what fans say and what.
Oh, and you bet they’re gonna release later a “complete edition” or something like that with all the DLC included, and make even more money selling you what should have been in the game since the beginning.
“We’re always monitoring the comments and feedback from users”…
Well, Capcom, if you’re monitoring the comments then I hope you’re monitoring this, I’m not buying your game anymore.. I might only get it if it comes with a bundle 3DS+Mercenaries+Revelations..
and this DLC better be FREE.

ahmed

woekerini i agreed with u

Jordan Freeman

Pffff. They just lost a sale.

Not because I’m a Leon fanboy or anything, it’s just this proves how little content this game will have.

Vampire-Jekyll

This just may be the first ‘Resident Evil’ title I don’t buy. And no, I could care less about Leon. It just seems like they are trying to really milk the fans of the series with a sub-par mini game that has been available in a couple of forms since RE4 launched. I don’t know too many people who preferred to play the Mercs mode outside of storyline other than as a mild distraction. Yes it’s a full fledged Mercs game would be sweet but only if they throw in 110% fan service. I do hope the game is awesome though, I just have my doubts.

Woekerini

@ Rope: I agree, it could have been planned from the beginning. As you said, DLC should be something very appealing for the fans. For the real fans, including myself, it doesn’t matter as long as we get him in the end.

@ Ahmed: I thank you for your support.

@ Jordan Freeman: Don’t let the left out Leon blind you, the game is quite large as of now. True, for a full Mercenaries game, 8 characters isn’t that much, but these characters can be developped thoroughly with the skill system and extra costumes. Come to think of alternate costumes, RE5 also had 8 characters.

Another possibility is that the system is based on RE5 Mercs and therefore Barry and Rebecca were easier to render to the 3DS version than Leon and Ada. They could have chosen to just quickly add Barry and Rebecca to the roster by taking them from RE5 just to make the deadline for release than rendering Leon and Ada or building a character from scratch. I about two weeks we’ll have the E3, which is just after the Japanese release, who knows what Capcom has in store, maybe they will announce DLC.

Iceweb38

I know I may be wrong but I believe the characters that have been chosen were so thanks to the availability of their voice actors.
If you listened closely to the trailers and if you analyse things as much as I do, you would notice that characters that have been featured on previous Mercenaries mode got new voices sets.

I believe the voice actors for Leon, Ada, Sheva and a few other were not available at the time of Mercs 3D developement which could explain why they’re not featured in the game. But I repeat, I may be wrong.

Dante

This is bullshit. They’re just trying to rip people off and make more money by saying “hey, we know what you want, and we know you’re mad leon’s not in a game that has 3 other characters from resident evil 4, but hey, pay us 15$ more and we’ll let you play as him!”

Underhanded, sneaky, bullshit Capcom. You lose a sale on my part.

Dante

Rope I completely agree with everything you just said.

Smiley

Iceweb38, if they cared about the voice actors then why does Chris, Wesker and Jill have many different replacements? The voice actresss for Jill in UC and RE5 certainly didn’t voice Jill in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and we’re left to wonder if she’ll even voice in this game.

And Woekerini to imply that we’re ungrateful is very silly. RE is one of their biggest franchises and it still remains no matter how much they milk off with re-releases and bonus content. It’s not ungrateful to expect Capcom to go above and beyond with this merc title. Thus far they’ve just been taking RE4 and 5 stages and enemies. The only new character is Claire. They cut out some big 4 and 5 characters. It’s not ungrateful to expect that they can do better. One of the reasons why the new Mortal Kombat is looked in such high regard over Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Because that’s a game that listened to its fan base and yet threw in more. 110% and worth every penny.

that guy

you know, if they DID listen to their fans, like they said they do, they wouldnt have to wait for feedback, the fans have been crying for Leon since day one, and they would know that if they truly did care.

It will be dlc i am betting, comming in paires, leon and ada, josh and sheva, and possibly excella and another villian in the series. i wish i could say “ima not buying this game imafirinmahlazarrrrr BLAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!! but i have payed for it and everything, and I enjoy the characters in it (jill in her re3 outfit? heck yeah). if they dont come out with dlc, i would be angry, but i wouldnt stop buying re games, i love them, and the more they make the more chance there is for dlc ( a spencer estate level and a raccoon city level have been leaked as possible dlc, so characters are very possible.)

Lukos

hm, yes they haven’t done well here. However, they must realise that leaving out Leon is ridiculous when theyve included Claire and Krauser. Its like having Jill and Wesker but no Chris, it just doesnt make sense. I guess he will be made available via download or something, but to be honest, this is a bad move from Capcom. Bad!!

EMod

(after release opinion) -> I already played all the missions (not perfectly, mind you) ut i hae completed them. theres alot of skills and extra junk i dont have unlocked yet so imma be playing this alot more. mercenaries is the multiplayer me and my friends played more in RE5 than the story itself so having a portable versions pretty nice.
With friends especially, i can see replayability being great. So i would say DLC would be nice.
Probably the order fans would like.
#1 Leon (he may be ‘tied up’ in Operation Raccoon City but he just mus be lazy, cuz i see Claire, and shes in the game too! lol)
#2 Ada (i expected her to be in gamer before HUNK or Krauser, im completely shocked she wasnt)
and then idk the exact rep of the other characters but heres some randomly.
*Sheva Alomar *Luis Sera *Billy Coen
So to the people complaining, look it sucks and its possible capcom may be milking us for some more dough but saying you wont buy it and stuff probably isnt changing anything. they’re still gonna make it, they’re still gonna do it their way. ITs like tieing urself up to a tree so a woodchopper wont cut the tree down. Sure they see u, and they wont cut down the tree ur chained to, but there are plenty of other trees. unless u get a enormous amount of people agreeing in one place (power in numbers) u might as well go with the flow.
Free or a lil money for the characters, ill probably still get the DLC. unless its random unpopular people. lol

I would be willing to buy DLC for this game. But one thing I noticed was the last time Leon was playable was on Resident Evil 4 Wii/RE:4 but barry was an included character IN the Mercenaries-type game so I think its kind of unfair that Leon still got cut off, and also, whos to say that this game takes place during operation Racoon City, I mean, I thought that Wesker and Krauser died, so its kind of wierd if you would put them in there after they died which could lead to me thinking that its before 4, but whatever you guys do, I will still be a fan, but will be a bit disappointed if Leon isn’t in the game, but I will still love it if he isn’t

samswopes

YESSSS!!!!! Add Leon oto the DLC!! I think it’ll be a great ideal to include him onto all DLC for the RE series!! Also, along with ADA WONG!! You can’t leave her out!!

max

yes plz plz plz plz put leon in dlc but not without ada she will make it a hit.

FC

Leon, Ada, new weapons if possible along with different melee animations attacks if possible. I bought this game because it was fun and because of the possibility of getting these other characters (and weapons) as down-loadable content.

Windbrand

Leon is one of the few sensible characters in the series.
Chris = moronic muscle macho whose only spotlight is the amount of mustache and steroid muscles he gains per year, typical American “guy”
No idea how he became the most popular resident evil character. Leon doesn’t look that great but he beats chris by a mile, since he at least has a soft side and doesn’t look like he eats steroids for breakfast lunch and dinner. Steve is the much better guy since he has both a “cute” and “strong” side, much more realistic. Too bad he only appears in one title. Guess the devs thought only the “american” characters should survive huh?
As for the girls, Jill is the typical “perfect” heroine who knows every bloody thing. Unrealistic, not to mention she doesn’t look nearly as good as Claire. No idea why she is much more popular than Claire as well.

http://www.facebook.com/people/George-Perez/100000646237583 George Perez

It’s obvious that Leon wasn’t in this game because Chris is in it. Capcom avoided putting them both in the Mercenaries 3D so that it can boost the anticipation of RE6. Business wise it was a good move (even though fans like me were pissed off about Leon missing from Mercs 3D) and they effectively market RE6 as “Chris and Leon meet up and are playable in the same game for the first time in the series.” Mercenaries will be epic since now I can finally have Chris and Leon team up and fighting side by side, and now that the new Cross Over feature in the campaign allows for 4 player co op, Mercenaries
4 player co op is pretty much a shoe in.

SAM

i dont know why the village on resident evil 4 is in the 3ds merc. they should of put leon in it because it had some resident evil 4 zombies in it i wish i worked for capcom